Thomas E. Watson

Thomas Edward Watson (5 September 1856-26 September 1922) was a member of the US House of Representatives (D-GA 10) from 4 March 1891 to 3 March 1893 (succeeding George Barnes and preceding James C.C. Black), as well as a US Senator from 4 March 1921 to 26 September 1922 (succeeding M. Hoke Smith and preceding Rebecca Latimer Felton).

Biography
Thomas Edward Watson was born in Thomson, Georgia in 1856, and he became a lawyer in 1875 and a member of the state legislature in 1882. In 1888, he was a presidential elector for Grover Cleveland, and he served in the US House of Representatives from 1891 to 1893. In the 1890s, Watson championed poor farmers as a leader of the Populist Party, supporting agrarianism while attacking business leaders, bankers, railroads, and the Democratic Party leadership. In 1896, he was William Jennings Bryan's running mate. Watson called on poor whites and blacks to unite against the elites, but, after 1900, he shifted to nativist attacks on blacks and Catholics (and, after 1914, the Jews). He was elected to the US Senate in 1920, but he died in office in 1922.